Winding Road
s/t

Perhaps it was a winding road for duo Magnus and Jan to form the band Winding Road, they then drove along this road to find the vocalist Jonas. They wanted to make the music they love, and eventually they signed with AOR Heaven and soon released the self-titled debut album. The question is if the musical roads are as twisty and exciting as the cover suggests, that is the question.

Guitar driven AOR or melodic rock with lots of catchiness and hit potential. The production is pretty excellent, and the singer really good – the Swedes know how to produce classic AOR, that much is certain. Another thing that is certain is that it is an album that doesn’t really offer any fresh ideas or surprises, but it is easy to like and to take to. In terms of variation there aren’t really anything that differentiate these guys from their genre peers, the expected songs are there but the playing time might be somewhat on the long side.

It starts pretty brilliantly with It’s a Matter of Survival, the best track of the album. So, the tone is set from the beginning but there are more strong tracks throughout the album and I don’t think any of the tracks can be described as weak. So, it may be slightly long, and the there isn’t much novelty here, but it is still a great album with several tracks showing hit potential. You don’t always have to bring out freshness and novelty to make great music, this is a good example of how great music of the AOR genre can be when it is done to perfection. But without the excitement of some novelty and freshness it can never be anything more than a fine album that will never be much more than a small note in the scrolls of music, the impactful albums of this genre were mostly made very long ago.

If you are a fan of the AOR genre it would probably be quite unwise to miss out on this one, it is enjoyable to listen to with its great songs and catchiness. So, if you are one of those you probably should start listening right away. They take a road that is way safer than the one showing on the artwork, that makes it great, but had they taken a more winding road it could have been quite amazing.

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